Mississippi...the hospitality state

Cotton! (pic from Google)

On Wednesday, we drove toward Jackson, Mississippi, through the Mississippi Delta, a very flat area consisting mostly of cotton farms. If you've never seen cotton growing (like we hadn't), it looks like white wildflowers on brown leaf-less stalks as far as the eye can see on both sides of the highway in some spots. 



We camped near the Ross Barnett Reservoir at Goshen Springs campground, a very nice place in Brandon, MS.


James and Joy

On Thursday, we drove into Jackson to visit the Old Capitol Building, which has been renovated 4 times (!) since 1839. It was interesting to read about the changes in laws throughout the building's history, like the passage of the Married Women's Property Act, a first in the country at the time (1839). Afterwards, we had a very tasty lunch at Basil's Restaurant in downtown, right across from the Governor's Mansion.

  

Next, we headed to James and Joy's house in Canton. Let's just say that Mississippi hospitality begins at the Foy house!



Cotton Picker (pic from wikipedia)

They took us on a tour of their farmland and their son's new house (gorgeous!), and then to their neighbor's cotton farm! So much fun!

James explained that the cotton grows on leaf-less stalks because a defoliator is sprayed to kill off the leaves. This is done so that when the cotton is picked (by machine now, of course) there is less 'trash' in the cotton, like leaves and such. We hopped out and picked a few handfuls of fluffy, fresh grown cotton, then headed down to meet the Sumralls, whose cotton we had been raiding.

See the mechanical foot at the end?

That's what does the smashing!

They were working on repairing one of the two cotton pickers, giant machines that look like a Zamboni with a fork in front. The fork is actually a bunch of little rotating fingers all on a rotating drum that separate the cotton from the plant so that the picker can vacuum it all up.

Standing in the

cotton squishing machine

Once the picker is full, the driver empties it into a catcher attached to a huge tractor. Once the catcher is full, it's then emptied into a cotton module builder, which looks like a giant bottomless construction dumpster with a mechanical foot to squish the cotton down into a huge block.

One of the Sumrall sons, Jeremy, was working the controls on the module builder and he invited us up to see. Joy climbed up and then promptly jumped into the cotton, so we, of course, followed. What fun!!!  

Ken with a module of cotton

Next, James took us to his brother's farm to show us a bunch of turkeys, a bin full of skittish little quails and a small mob of crazy looking guineas that his brother raises. Apparently, turkeys can climb because we saw one walking around on the barn roof. Occasionally they even show up and harass Joy in her driveway! 

We headed back to the Foy's house for drinks, a tasty dinner and wonderful conversation. A big thank you to James and Joy for a fabulous day!





Gallatin, TN

Ken and the turkeys heading to the showers

Well, we finally got some pictures of the turkeys! Ken found them wandering around the RV again one morning and took some pictures of them before they ran off into the woods again. And then, another morning, I got some pictures of them strolling across the camp road and into the brush. They're just ridiculous.

Running turkeys!

Historic Rock Castle

We visited Historic Rock Castle in Hendersonville, TN, and tried to visit several other historic sites with varying degrees of disappointment. Historic Fort Bledsoe Lick Park was very poorly cared for and offered almost no information on its history or significance. Wynnewood, a huge log structure, was completely closed for tornado damage repair. And Cragfont (a huge, very old home) seemed a great place to tour but we couldn't find anyone on duty there in the middle of the day and the house was locked. Grr. Regardless, we enjoyed touring Rock Castle and hiking in Bledsoe Creek State Park, looking for turkeys. (Just turkeys?! No looking for deer or anything else, just turkeys? Yes, just turkeys.) We did happen to see a couple of small lizards, dozens of snapping turtles, and lots of fishies and birds. We even watched a heron catch and eat a squirming fish. Yum.

TN Capitol Building

On Thursday, we toured downtown Nashville, took in the capitol building and the surrounding grounds, and then wandered a few blocks away for some lunch and chocolate covered peanuts.

Jocelyn and Joe Reese

Then, on Friday, we began the Jocelyn and Joe wedding circuit. The rehearsal lunch was held at a nice restaurant in Gallatin, Grecian's, where we met Joe's family and friends from Kansas City, Missouri. Then we attended the rehearsal at Spring Haven (another very large, very old home). The next day, the wedding fun began. Jocelyn and Joe were married on the front steps of the house and the reception was held in the back right afterwards. Fun was had by all. What a beautiful couple they are!

On Sunday, Shauna hosted a lovely brunch party at a little restaurant in downtown Nashville, 417 Union (where Ken and I coincidentally ate lunch a few days earlier on the recommendation of a complete stranger). Afterwards, Ken and I walked a few blocks away and took in the sights around the downtown.

Lastly, of course, we roasted lots of marshmallows...almost every evening, in fact. YUM!

On Monday, we headed to Memphis where we stayed at the nice T.O. Fuller State Park, nestled in a rather nasty section of the city. In fact, as we've driven around to Beale Street, near Graceland and such, we've only found rather nasty sections of town. On Tuesday, we drove to Tunica, Mississippi, a large expanse of extremely flat farmland interrupted only occasionally by giant casinos. As we've found nothing worthy of taking a picture, we're looking forward to moving on from here today. At least we came out a little ahead at the casinos.

Back to Tennessee

Well, we've been off the grid for a while, having stopped at home to recharge our batteries, attend to some family business and tear down the brick fireplace thing in our living room (don't ask). But we're back on the road now after visiting Stacy and Monte and Janine and Joel in North Carolina (sincere thanks to both couples for putting up with us and our pups for the time we spent at their places!).

We first stopped in Tennessee north of Knoxville in a little town called Morristown where we stayed at the Panther Creek State Park and found a very large family reunion and a full campground. Nice place! And lots of hiking trails to visit. We managed to inadvertently walk a lot farther on one of the trails than we meant to (this is typical for us, just ask Joel), and though we thought we were taking a short cut, we were actually scaling the only trail in the park rated 'difficult'. Nice. On Sunday, we visited Marble Springs State Historic Site where John Sevier lived. Sevier was Tennessee's first governor and he served 6 terms. The historic site offered examples of log structures from the 1790's through the 1820's, very interesting.

Picture from Ramsey House Plantation website

Next we headed a few miles away to the Ramsey House Plantation, the first stone home built in eastern Tennessee. The house, despite being built in 1797, still maintains ALL the original wood moldings, floors, banister and fireplace mantles. The home was sold out of the Ramsey family at some point in the early 20th century and then used as a rental home and then as a hay barn(!) until it was purchased by the APTA (Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities) in 1952. The fact that the wood moldings and floors withstood renters and being used as a barn is a miracle, but it also never had running water or electricity ever installed either. Evidently, it was also never attacked by Indians nor did it ever catch fire (typical of most of the other homes of that time period). It was a fascinating tour!

Turtles and ducks

On Monday, we left Panther Creek and drove through an amazing amount of rain to get to Bledsoe Creek State Park near Nashville. Oddly and interestingly, in the first 24 hours of arriving here, we've seen more wildlife than we saw in all of New England combined. We've seen ducks, egrets, a heron, 7 big box turtles, countless deer and squirrels, and a bunch of wild turkeys. The turkeys are very entertaining to watch, especially when there's 10 of them crowded around the RV picking at the ground. But they turn downright hilarious when they run. They'll stick their necks out and then take off running like raptors with no arms. They look ridiculous. We set off for a hike this morning and found them scattered up a hill off the trail running away from the sound of us huffing and puffing our way up a steep incline. We haven't seen them since...can't say I blame them, we must have looked and sounded rather menacing. I'll try to get a picture of them before we leave...

Just a duck, people, don't get excited. Not a turkey.

Pal of the other duck. They're never apart.